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Elon Musk and DOGE reportedly tried to take over the U.S. Copyright Office

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Elon Musk and Donald Trump

Did Elon Musk try, and fail, to take over the Library of Congress so he could feed the nation's intellectual property into training fuel for his AI company?

That's what some U.S. Congress members — and even some fierce supporters of President Donald Trump — are saying.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump fired the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter. The timing of the firing was notable as the office had just released a report on AI, and under some unusual circumstances. The Copyright Office's report concluded that training AI models on copyrighted material may not be protected by the fair use legal doctrine — a major blow to AI companies.

Big Tech companies and their executives have gone out of their way to curry favor with Trump since the 2024 election, and none more so than Elon Musk, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help elect President Trump and other Republicans.

So, when Trump fired the heads of the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office, some copyright lawyers grew concerned. The fear: That Elon Musk was committing an end-run around copyright law and getting the motherlode of AI training material directly from the source.

“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle (NY-25) in a statement. "It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models."

It seems, however, that this concern was well-founded.

According to a new report from The Verge, the Big Tech critics within Trump's own circles are "convinced" that Musk and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks were behind the firings. Specifically, they believed Musk and Sacks were attempting a copyright takeover for Big Tech.

“We're not going to let every copyright work in America, every creator's hard-earned work get stolen by the tech bros so they can make billions of dollars off of other people's work," said Mike Davis, founder of the Internet Accountability Project and an antitrust advisor to Trump, in a recent interview with right-wing podcast host Steve Bannon.

So, when Trump officials showed up at the Copyright Office this week with a letter from the president, critics feared Musk had sent members of his special project DOGE to take over. However, The Verge reports the men are actually anti-Big Tech officials from within Trump's orbit.

The White House has reportedly named Paul Perkins as the acting Register of Copyrights and Brian Nieves as the acting deputy librarian, although it's not clear if he has the authority to make these appointments. (The Librarian of Congress is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.) Todd Blanche is now working as their boss in the role of Acting Librarian of Congress after President Trump fired his predecessor, Dr. Carla Hayden, last week. All three men are staunch Big Tech critics. In fact, one source told The Verge that Blanche is there specifically to "stick it to tech.”

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The best-selling $169 AirPods Pro deal is back — grab em while you can

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SAVE $80: As of Aug. 9, the Apple AirPods Pro 2 are on sale for $169 at Amazon. That's 32% off their list price of $249.



Apple AirPods Pro 2 in charging case

Credit: Apple


Apple AirPods Pro 2

$169
at Amazon

$249
Save $80



The battle of the best earbuds is a pretty tough race, but the AirPods Pro are still a huge standout — especially now that they feature USB-C charging. And we love them even more when they're on sale.

As of Aug. 9, the AirPods Pro 2 are down to just $169 at Amazon instead of the usual $249. That's a savings of 32% and just $20 shy of their best-ever price from Prime Day. The Apple earbuds do fall to $169 pretty regularly, but that doesn't mean this isn't a solid deal. That's only $40 more than the AirPods 4 at full price, which don't even offer noise cancellation.

We particularly love the rich and well-balanced sound of the AirPods Pro, although we wish they offered customizable EQ. They also offer best-in-class noise cancellation, decent battery life (up to six hours per charge, 30 hours with case), and seamless Apple ecosystem integration. The Pros regularly top our lists of the best headphones, and our readers seem to love them just as much. "For portability, active noise cancellation, and balanced sound, your search ends with the AirPods Pro," our reviewer writes.

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NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 9, 2025

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Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here's a hint for today's Connections Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

  • Yellow: Ways to throw a baseball

  • Green: Hockey fouls

  • Blue: Women's hockey

  • Purple: Roll Tide QBs

Here are today's Connections Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

  • Yellow: Baseball Pitching Arm Slots

  • Green: Hockey Penalties

  • Blue: PWHL Teams

  • Purple: Former Alabama QBs

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections Sports Edition #320 is…

What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition today

  • Baseball Pitching Arm Slots – OVERHAND, SIDEARM, SUBMARINE, THREE-QUARTERS

  • Hockey Penalties – BOARDING, CROSS-CHECKING, HOOKING, INTERFERENCE

  • PWHL Teams – CHARGE, FLEET, FROST, SIRENS

  • Former Alabama QBs – NAMATH, STABLER, STARR, YOUNG

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Connections.

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Microsoft is shutting down its Lens PDF scanner app

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The Microsoft logo and lettering can be seen on the Microsoft Deutschland GmbH headquarters building in Parkstadt Schwabing in Munich

Microsoft is quietly winding down its Lens scanning app for iOS and Android, the company confirmed in a support document.

Formerly known as Office Lens, the app lets users convert images into PDFs, PowerPoint slides, and Excel files, handling both handwritten and printed documents with ease. It was simple, reliable, and widely used — but it’s now on the chopping block. Microsoft plans to officially retire the app on Sept. 15, 2025.

Support will end on Nov. 15, 2025, when Lens will be pulled from both the App Store and Google Play. Users will still be able to create scans until Dec. 15, 2025, but after that, the feature will be disabled. Existing scans will remain accessible as long as the app stays installed on the device.

The move marks the end of an app that’s seen more than 50 million downloads on Google Play and nearly 136,000 ratings on Apple’s App Store.

Microsoft is pointing users toward Microsoft 365 Copilot, which carries over most of Lens’s scanning capabilities. However, Copilot lacks some of Lens’s biggest perks, including direct saving to Microsoft Suite apps and accessibility features like read-aloud support and Immersive Reader integration.

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